An unmanned vehicle, which may also be referred to as an autonomous vehicle (AV), is a vehicle capable of travel without a physically-present human operator. An unmanned vehicle may operate in a remote-control mode, in an autonomous mode, or in a partially autonomous mode.
When an unmanned vehicle operates in a remote-control mode, a pilot or driver that is at a remote location can control the unmanned vehicle via commands that are sent to the unmanned vehicle via a wireless link. When the unmanned vehicle operates in autonomous mode, the unmanned vehicle typically moves based on pre-programmed navigation waypoints, dynamic automation systems, or a combination of these. Further, some unmanned vehicles can operate in both a remote-control mode and an autonomous mode, and in some instances may do so simultaneously. For instance, a remote pilot or driver may wish to leave navigation to an autonomous system while manually performing another task, such as operating a mechanical system for picking up objects, as an example.
Various types of unmanned vehicles exist for various different environments. For instance, unmanned vehicles exist for operation in the air, on the ground, on or under the water, and in space. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are becoming more popular in general. They are being deployed in a variety of different field settings including urban, suburban, and rural environments. The wide variety of deployment environments creates a challenge for providing the connectivity infrastructure that these AVs often rely upon. AV connectivity for long term, or even short term, deployments can require access to backend resources provided by a remote server, cloud services, or command terminal. It is desirable for these backend resources to be available in the full variety of field settings with minimal setup and teardown effort.